Adele, LMFAO and Rihanna lead the nominations for the 2012 Billboard Awards, which take place at Las Vegas' MGM Grand and will be broadcast live Sunday May 20 at 8 PM ET on ABC.

The awards are modern and digitally minded, in that they reflect Billboard's chart rankings based on key fan interactions with music, including album sales and downloads, track downloads, radio airplay and touring as well as streaming and social interactions on Facebook, Twitter, Vevo, YouTube, Spotify and other popular online destinations for music. In essence, the awards take everything into account.

Adele racked up 18 nominations, including Top Artist, Top Female Artist and Top Billboard 200 Artist. Party rockers LMFAO follow as finalists in 17 categories. They are entered in 22 categories overall, whereas Adele is entered in 20.